By Nick Sparkes
October 7 2005

Panasonic Toyota Racing enjoyed an impressive debut on home soil, with Ricardo Zonta ending the day fastest, a clear second ahead of anybody else. Race drivers Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher also showed some impressive speed, putting their TF105B’s ahead of the 2005 champion Fernando Alonso. The first session took place under cloudy conditions, although rain was expected to fall for the second session. Ricardo Zonta was once again Toyota’s lead driver, putting in the bulk of the laps before a sudden mechanical failure at the end of the session. Even still, this didn’t stop the Brazilian showing Toyota’s home crowd what Toyota were made of, as Zonta went second fastest behind the McLaren of Pedro De la Rosa. Race drivers Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli had a slow start to the day ending up just seventeenth and nineteenth in the new TF105B, with Jarno still adapting to his new machine. Elsewhere the 2005 championship runner up Kimi Raikkonen, suffered yet another Mercedes engine failure, ending him up with a ten place drop for tomorrows qualifying session. The surprise of the session was David Coulthard’s Red Bull Racing, which ended up fourth quickest.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1	P. De La Rosa	Team McLaren Mercedes	1:30.532	23
2	R. Zonta	Panasonic Toyota Racing	1:31.075	16
3	J. Button	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	1:32.043	18
4	D. Coulthard	Red Bull Racing	1:32.229	23
5	J. Montoya	Team McLaren Mercedes	1:32.321	9
6	F. Alonso	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	1:32.370	22
7	G. Fisichella	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	1:32.470	19
8	T. Sato	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	1:32.791	20
9	M. Webber	BMW WilliamsF1 Team	1:32.098	13
10	C. Klien	Red Bull Racing	1:33.139	19
11	F. Massa	Sauber Petronas	1:33.257	16
12	V. Liuzzi	Red Bull Racing	1:33.441	22
13	K. Raikkonen	Team McLaren Mercedes	1:33.486	8
14	A. Pizzonia	BMW WilliamsF1 Team	1:33.528	22
15	J. Villeneuve	Sauber Petronas	1:33.645	15
16	R. Barrichello	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	1:33.700	9
17	R. Schumacher	Panasonic Toyota Racing	1:33.735	10
18	M. Schumacher	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	1:33.886	9
19	J. Trulli	Panasonic Toyota Racing	1:34.535	11
20	S.Yamamoto	Jordan Grand Prix	1:36.295	23
21	C. Albers	Minardi F1 Team	1:37.153	16
22	N. Karthikeyan	Jordan Grand Prix	1:37.154	13
23	R. Doornbos	Minardi F1 Team	1:37.816	17
24	T. Monteiro	Jordan Grand Prix	1:38.250	17

The second session began under a cloudy sky, put turned to rain half way through. Therefore the fastest times came in the first fifteen minutes, with Ricardo Zonta putting in some seriously quick laps to end the session fastest, over a second clear of his rivals. His team-mates Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli also upped their pace, going sixth and seventh quickest in the new Toyota. Out going champion Michael Schumacher also turned a corner by ending the day second fastest, Ferrari need to remain ahead of Toyota in the constructors’ championship, and another strong showing on Sunday by the Italian team could see them keeping third place.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1	R. Zonta	Panasonic Toyota Racing	1:30.682	21
2	M. Schumacher	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	1:31.716	16
3	P. De La Rosa	Team McLaren Mercedes	1:31.821	28
4	R. Barrichello	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	1:32.267	15
5	K. Raikkonen	Team McLaren Mercedes	1:32.849	13
6	R. Schumacher	Panasonic Toyota Racing	1:32.917	13
7	J. Trulli	Panasonic Toyota Racing	1:33.122	13
8	F. Alonso	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	1:33.259	7
9	J. Button	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	1:33.453	20
10	M. Webber	BMW WilliamsF1 Team	1:33.520	14
11	D. Coulthard	Red Bull Racing	1:33.563	11
12	A. Pizzonia	BMW WilliamsF1 Team	1:33.679	14
13	T. Sato	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	1:34.330	16
14	G. Fisichella	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	1:34.400	7
15	F. Massa	Sauber Petronas	1:34.421	17
16	C. Klien	Red Bull Racing	1:34.707	12
17	S. Yamamoto	Jordan Grand Prix	1:34.829	19
18	J. Villeneuve	Sauber Petronas	1:34.874	18
19	V. Liuzzi	Red Bull Racing	1:34.977	7
20	R. Doornbos	Minardi F1 Team	1:35.150	8
21	T. Monteiro	Jordan Grand Prix	1:35.388	12
22	J. Montoya	Team McLaren Mercedes	1:37.371	5
23	C. Albers	Minardi F1 Team	1:37.626	7
24	N. Karthikeyan	Jordan Grand Prix	1:38.034	7